Living Roof

Living Roof

Blog Post #6 by Hannah Pauling (May 2014)

While many people prefer to spend their Saturdays sipping a beer in the backyard, I spent one very interesting Saturday with a group of East-Coast hippies (who knew that existed??) building a living roof on a home in rural Maryland.

After meeting a kind woman named Vandana at a tree-planting event, I found out about Living Roofs and their innovated home-building project in Frederick, Maryland. The hired Sigi Koko of Down to Earth Design, an unlicensed but talented architect, to hold regular building workshops as a way to offset the cost of their project.

Upon reaching the site, I immediately fell in love with the circular design of the house, but also with the idea that I could follow in the footsteps of Sigi Koko to design AND build homes for a living. Even the Frederick community found the project interesting and sent a local reporter to write a small article about this couple's home. I promptly drew a small sketch for the reporter to include in the article.

All the wood came directly from the site itself. The builders came from all around the east coast, including a truck-full of paying volunteers from West Virginia.

We mixed in organic matter with clay from the site with giant tarps as the first step of the planting process. The living roof began to take life as we brought the mixture up using a standard bucket and pulley system.

I learned more about sustainable and living architecture in one day on-site than I had sitting in class at Cal Poly. I hope that these fine people apply for the Living Building Challenge, because they certainly seem to qualify!